Sept-02-2010 DCA Announces Winner of 2010 Fire Safety Poster Contest

Department of Community Affairs (DCA) Commissioner Lori Grifa meets with Katie Boyle of Bayonne, the grand prize winner of the New Jersey Fire Safety Poster Contest for the 2009-2010 school year. Click here to see Katie's poster.

TRENTON - Department of Community Affairs (DCA) Commissioner Lori Grifa today announced Katie Boyle of Bayonne as the grand prize winner of the New Jersey Fire Safety Poster Contest for the 2009-2010 school year. The poster contest is cooperatively organized by the DCA's Division of Fire Safety and the New Jersey Fire Prevention and Protection Association.

"The goal of the poster contest was to encourage fire safety awareness in the home, school and community and Katie's poster accomplishes that," said Commissioner Grifa. "Her beautiful artwork and the important message behind it will now be seen in schools and municipal buildings around New Jersey. I congratulate her on a job well done."

Katie, who is going into the fifth grade at P.S. 14 in Bayonne, beat out more than 5,000 other contestants and six other division winners from across the State. Her poster will now be distributed throughout New Jersey carrying the message of "Stay Fire Smart! Don’t Get Burned," which was the theme of the 2009-2010 contest.

More than 4,500 posters have been printed compliments of Atlantic City Electric and its Emergency Services Partnership Program. Other major sponsors include the New Jersey Association of Fire Equipment Distributors and the New Jersey Chapter of the American Fire Sprinkler Association, which combined to provide seven Dell laptop computers and printers for the contest’s seven division winners. The Joshua Marcus Group also provided a plaque for the grand prize winner.

The contest theme for the 2010-2011 school year is "Smoke Alarms – A sound you can live with."

The DCA's Division of Fire Safety serves as the central fire service agency in the State. The Division is responsible for the development and enforcement of the State Uniform Fire Code, as well as for implementing public education and firefighter training programs.

A PDF of the winning poster and a photo of Commissioner Grifa and the grand prize winner are included as attachments to this email.